Anyone have an opinion or experience of lcd lighting? I know its expensive to buy but cheap to run and no heat to disperse. but does it do the job?
if u mean LED lighting they have a reputation for not providing enough light, being too expensive, and just being over hyped
Give it time. The technology exists, but hasn't been applied to the grow market for some reason. I think I've seen a few panels starting to come out with 3W diodes. This is the minimum wattage needed for an LED grow light, but as has been stated, they are very expensive. When the 10W lights make it to the grow market, provided they produce the proper spectrum for herb to thrive, they will smash everything you've ever seen. I ran into the same situation with my trail rig. I did a lot of high speed trail runs at night, so I wanted the best lights possible. I started looking into LED lights, and finally found Vision X. These guys developed their lights for NASA and the military. I own their entire LED line, and I can personally tell you that the Solstice 10w lights blow every HID I've seen out of the water in all aspects. Lightforce, PIAA, Hella.... none of them even come close. So, if you have your heart set of LED lighting, just be patient. And start saving up. They aren't going to be cheap.
I have some experience with led. some of it good. the claims, other than the lack of heat are just not true. I agree with Toledo FJ, they are the future of growing. but i dont see the power savings claimed. If you look a Rumples grow journals you will see he used equil power to a 400 hps and his result was in my estimate slightly less than average for indoor and a well maintained outdoor would be a way better yeild. I am an old outdoor forced indoor. I have had the best luck using a good flourescent tube setup to root. a high quality led for vegging and an hps for flower. Led is better than metal hydride. i have done both ways. led are bushier and suffer less stress. my ufo suffered and fatal failure thursday night and i have replaced it with a 200w cfl (another experiment. Never tried a flouro as big as that) led has its place in the chain. but theres no great advantage to a led setup...not yet
You could look into the Air Cooled, VHO (Very High Output) T5 tube lights. They look the same as the current HO T5 tubes, but put out twice as much light. They come in 4 and 8 tube versions with the option of running 120 or 240. I've had awesome results with a combination of HO T5 lighting and 1000W 6.4K Sulpulse bulbs in my veg. room. The VHO lights should provide enough light intensity to actually flower proper buds under only T5 lights. I'm buying the 8 tube 240V light this week. here is a link for the 4 tube: Solar Wind Air-Cooled T5 VHO Fluorescent Fixture 4 Foot 4 Lamp And here is the one I'm ordering: Solar Wind Air-Cooled T5 VHO Fluorescent 4 Foot 8 Lamp 240v They also have air cooled HO fixtures, and larger VHO fixtures that are not air cooled.